NHRA Top Fuel Great Larry Dixon’s New Normal Is Just As Satisfying

A 15-inch-tall, 13-pound bronze plaque featuring Larry Dixon’s likeness is permanently on display at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America museum at Daytona International Speedway.

That Gabriel Vinas sculpture is a palpable reminder of the glory years of the early 2000s, when Dixon and Tony Schumacher waged their epic NHRA Top Fuel battles for the better part of a decade. It’s tangible evidence that Dixon, a 2021 inductee of the Hall, won three championships (2002, 2003, 2010) and 62 races (second only all-time to Schumacher’s 85 and tied for seventh with Pro Stock’s Jeg Coughlin in the sport’s 70-plus-year history).

Those who saw Dixon qualify No. 1 on 53 occasions and win 678 elimination rounds, including the 2003 Western Swing sweep, should cherish their memories. Dixon said he doesn’t think he’ll add much to that body of work. He hasn’t raced full-time since 2015, and economics unfortunately hint that isn’t likely to change.

“I’d say there’s a 90-percent chance that probably won’t happen – not because I don’t love the sport or love driving or love racing Top Fuel cars. It’s just the dollars and cents: getting the proper funding, trying to come up with a company that you can sell the sport to for what it costs to do it and then be able to show a solid return on their investment,” Dixon said.

“At one point in time, it made a lot of sense. You saw companies like Budweiser and Miller and Skoal and just so many companies. It’s gotten very expensive, and everyone’s watching their dollars and cents. Some guys are doing it. You see a lot of new teams coming up. It’s not that I don’t love the sport. It’s just the hard, cold facts,” he said. “It’s the reason you don’t see Don Prudhomme out there, or Kenny Bernstein out there, or Alan Johnson having his own team, or Bob Vandergriff. You can go on and on. A lot of people love the sport. I haven’t figured it out, as far as paying for it yet.”

But Dixon hasn’t disappeared. He still match races at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park (at Martin, Mich.) and Cordova (Ill.) Dragway (and, if border restrictions are relaxed, at Canada’s Grand Bend Motorsports Park in Ontario), with his own Top Fuel dragster. He keeps busy with his NitroX2 two-seater exhibition dragster, sharing his 10,000-horsepower thrill of bolting down a dragstrip with non-racers. “That kind of gives me a little bit of a fix, as well,” he said. “It’s still a Top Fuel car. It still runs…